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This would be useful at my school. We rename every iPad device name to match the username (by hand) before we hand it to a student. AirDrop is one example where the device name can be useful, and you occasionally see it in other places such as the iCloud device list. Username is strictly an MDM thing that only shows up in JAMF tools.

When I took my JAMF CMA training a couple of years ago, the trainer, who did a good job by the way, said that it didn't make any sense trying to use the mobile device name field since users could change it anyway. I don't think these were his words, but he seemed to say it was stupid to depend upon that field. There was some truth in that then. However, with DEP making it easy to supervise devices now and JSS allowing us to set and enforce device names, meaningful device names are useful. While this is not the most important feature request in existence, I post this comment as a reminder to those very experienced JAMF staff and other close advisors that maybe this shouldn't be written off as unimportant or frivolous any longer.

Just wanted to give this a little bump. This would be a huge improvement for Configuration Profile Logs (that or showing usernames and extra mobile device info in there).

The other thing it would be great for is using Configurator 2's feature to write extra information to the Lock Screen wallpaper. Right now I use a script to grab the username from the API for the device name, but it's all manual—the script enforces those non-variable names. If we need to make last minute changes it needs to be done by someone who knows how to use the script. This would make things much more dynamic and automated for any not-so-techy people in charge of iPad setup.

@jchurch This is where JSS > Settings > Mobile Device Management > Inventory Display is useful in most lists. I would like to see JAMF apply the Inventory Display settings to all device/computer lists in the JSS (including VPP assignments).

@bcampbell I used to be one of those instructors, and while it has become possible to maintain a naming convention, the necessity (or lack thereof) of doing so hasn't changed.

Now that I'm back to running deployments, I still hold that maintaining device and computer names is wasted effort. There are plenty of other fields that can be used to identify a device and serve other functional purposes. My teams have more work than head count, so I'd rather avoid spending my and their time doing unnecessary "vanity" work.

To each their own, of course, and I don't want to tell you how to run your environment, I'm just offering my approach and perspective.

However, as a JAMF customer, I'd hate to see "vanity" features take up development cycles when there are functional and necessary features yet to be delivered.

@jbourdon I'm curious as to why the naming convention for LDAP fields as well as making the device name appear on the lock screen can't be enforced via Casper. If a kid leaves his iPad laying around, especially if it's in a military grade case, taking it out to get to the SN is a pain. Then you still have to look it up manually. It's much easier just to see whose name is on the front. This is not a vanity feature. It's a matter of common sense.

From a trouble shooting perspective this is key for me. If I have a user in another building and they are having an issue with 1 out of 15 iPads, they're not going to be so willing to write down the complex looking SN of the device. I'm way more likely to get someone to send me the friendly name though. I'll go in and update these names my self, but having a more systematic approach to this task would be better.

We have a total of 3,500 iPads that were deployed using serial name prefixed with the year. Well many of the teachers, and principals decided they wanted that changed to the students names so airdrop could be used easily. The only way this worked for me was to temporarily take off enforcing mobile names. Access our mdm database and create a command that selected the username field and replaced the device name with the username field. It changed all 3500 iPads but we have to do that periodically because new ones still get our old naming convention. A solution like posted above would be much simpler however our solution did work.

@TheWoodstockAcademy that's exactly what I was thinking...enable this feature in PreStage, and it would be amazing

and for any more detractors...i'd like to know what other fields would be used for AirDrop besides Device Name. really...I don't think there is one. remember, not all features exist for the benefit of the admins!

i found an app that accomplishes this for me. JSS MUT just feed it a .csv of serialnumbers and what you want the name to be. works like a charm. not as easy as being able to just use a variable in the name, but it gets the job done.

This seems like a no-brainer feature to me as well. Reading this thread, I see a stubborn denial from an administrative point of view, with no consideration for the end user's experience. That's frustrating.

A teacher would like to AirDrop something to some of her students, and sees a long list of near-identical serial numbers. The fact that the iPad administrators can easily use other fields in JSS to identify iPads doesn't help her in doing her job. My job as an administrator is to allow my customers, the teachers, do their job. My tools that do not serve that purpose are useless to me. So the mindset that because an administrator has another way of finding that information is a useless mindset to apply to development.

Please implement a feature to allow managed device name enforcement for fields such as username.

Until Jamf adds this feature, I have created a FileMaker Pro 16 database that uses the API to GET and PUT data from Mobile Devices and Mobile Device Applications, including a POST to update the Movile Device device_name.

So you could change the device_name for one, all, or selected group of mobile devices.

If you know how to use FileMaker, you could create a script that would name the device based on the Username or any other field from the JSS (or other fields in your database).

In my FileMaker database that I use, I have it connected to our SIS (Infinite Campus) which brings in all the roster information and student information. I can then assign students an iPad, and update the JSS with Username of the student, Department (grade level), Building (school), and Room (teacher name).

I'm adding my support to this request; we oversee almost 700 ipads in a primary school that uses AirDrop daily; the ability of users to be able to identify other users is certainly NOT a vanity issue and iCloud accounts are not an option for these kids, leaving us no alternative beyond device names. As it stands now, JAMF's naming choices are utterly useless on the user end and renders a basic function of the device (AirDrop) unusable in any practical way.

@j.evans As a workaround, you could create a CSV file with the serial numbers in one column and the desired device name in the second column (i.e. FirstName SerialNo OR FullName SerialNo) and use The MUT to change the device names.

@cdenesha We've been looking at doing this with MUT; we've been holding off because if an iPad needs to be wiped for any reason, it'll revert to the pre-stage name, and we're self-aware enough to know we'll forget to "fix" the name of the wiped iPad at least half the time and we'll end up with a mess. The naming-mess-over-time was one of the over-riding reasons we switched to JAMF in the first place, so finding out we're back in the same boat again is a bitter pill.